READY TO CRUISE CALL.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

Not just any employer would bus more than a hundred new hires from Eugene to Seattle to treat them to lunch on a cruise ship. But Royal Caribbean isn't any ordinary employer, say several new hires at the cruise line's reservations call center in Springfield.

The weekend before Oct. 10, her first official day on the job at Royal Caribbean, Julia Morrill toured the Mercury, a Celebrity Cruise ship docked in downtown Seattle, as part of her training to be a cruise representative.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. owns a fleet of 19 ships under its own name, and 9 ships under the Celebrity name. The Mercury travels to Alaska in the summer and to Mexico in the winter. That October weekend it was scheduled for a short cruise near Seattle.

"We toured the ship and had a wonderful lunch," Morrill recalled. "It was a great experience."

That was the first time Morrill had set foot on a cruise ship, and she's happy to say it probably won't be the last.

A perk that comes with her new job is a free cruise for herself after a year's employment, and discounts for herself, as well as family members or friends traveling with her, on additional cruises.

Of all the benefits Royal Caribbean offers, "I'm especially excited about cruising," said Morrill, a 36-year-old Eugene resident, who has three daughters. "That's one of my biggest dreams for myself and husband and children - to travel.

`We don't have a lot of opportunities to travel, and this job will give us that opportunity," she said.

The company encourages employees to use the benefit, for very practical reasons.

The more employees cruise, said Chris Monnette, director of trade and support service at the Springfield center, "the better able they are to talk to travel partners about the experience and to sell the cruise."

Morrill is one of 230 Royal Caribbean employees who are settling into their newly constructed 165,000-square-foot home off Interstate 5 in Springfield.

They finished moving in last Monday from temporary quarters in the former Symantec building in downtown Eugene.

The building itself stands out, with round porthole windows facing the highway, and a mast-like structure perched over the main entrance. Interior art and design elements also evoke a cruise-ship feel, Monnette said.

The company paid a premium for real estate with high exposure to I-5 and wanted a distinctive building that attracted attention. "It's not only a contact center for us," Monnette said. "It's a very important presence for us on the West Coast."

Inside, hundreds of representatives answer phones at their work stations, while white-noise generators blur the roomful of conversations into background noise.

Employees work 8-hour shifts, with two 15-minute breaks and a half-hour lunch. They can take their breaks or eat their lunch outside on terraces overlooking the Coburg Hills.

They also have access to an on-site cafeteria and exercise facility.

Wellness is a big focus in Royal Caribbean's corporate culture, Monnette said. Even the building's vending machines have healthful options, such as salads, he said.

What's good for employees also turns out to be good for the company because it can reduce turnover and the high cost of training replacement workers.

"The more we can do to make people feel comfortable and want to come to work everyday, the less expensive it is for us," Monnette said.

Morrill said it hasn't been difficult adjusting to the new rhythm of her day. She steadily takes incoming calls from 9:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., then the pace slows a bit after 3 p.m.

Most of the people she talks to are travel agents from all over the country.

"Most of the time it's not a very strenuous or difficult job," Morrill said. "It's actually pretty nice to take calls from people going on vacation. It's not like selling credit cards."

Going back to work full-time is a big change for Morrill, who has been a stay-at-home mom for the past two years and had previously worked as a substitute teacher and as a travel agent.

"I'm completely proud to say I'm working at Royal Caribbean," she said. "I feel a lot of positive energy (at work), and I haven't had a bad day."

Another employee, 31-year-old Holly Oversby, was hired in October as a cruise representative, and early this month was promoted to quality assurance specialist.

She listens in on calls and gives agents feedback on their performance.

Oversby, now a Eugene resident, had worked at a paper mill in West Linn for the past seven years, running equipment and coordinating new employee and safety orientations.

She also had had experience in retail management, which she said she emphasized in her hiring interview.

"People don't really think of the paper industry transitioning to Royal Caribbean," she said. "But I had had a customer service background."

Oversby said she was eager to return to the Springfield area - where she had grown up - and she wanted to build a career at Royal Caribbean.

Oversby said she's interested in working her way up to being a trainer.

She said she was pleasantly surprised when her new boss encouraged her to use the company's tuition reimbursement program to further her education. Oversby has an associate's degree from Lane Community College.

"They're really big on employee development," she said.

Monnette said the company does offer opportunities for advancement, and that "Even just since we've been here, we've seen people start to get promotions." The center is expected to have 400 employees by the end of the year and up to 1,000 by 2009.

Mike Fritchman, 44, a supervisor at the new center, said he also appreciates the company's focus on employees and the freedom he has as a manager, which isn't always the case in this industry.

"In the call center industry, you can be micromanaged to death," he said. "They give me the flexibility to manage the team the way I see fit."

Fritchman, a Creswell resident, came to Royal Caribbean after two layoffs: first from Lane Transit District's information technology department, then from Stream, a call center that handled retail customer service for security software maker Symantec Corp. Stream's Eugene call center closed in October 2004, when the work was shifted to a call center in India.

Before signing on with Royal Caribbean, Fritchman said he checked up on the cruise line.

"I did some research on the company, and I couldn't find anything really bad," Fritchman said.

Before he accepted Royal Caribbean's offer, he randomly called about a dozen agents working at Royal Caribbean call centers in Miami and Wichita, and asked them what they thought about the company.

Many of the agents told Fritchman that they thought Royal Caribbean was a good corporate citizen, he said.

"We've all heard the corporate giants talk the talk, but they actually walk the walk," Fritchman said. "They seem to care about their people."

Having survived multiple layoffs, Fritchman also was seeking some assurance that the company would be in Springfield for a while.

He said the company's investment in its new building shows its commitment to the area.

"If they were planning to lay us all off, they wouldn't have invested in that building," he figures. "It will take at least six to eight years to get a return from the building."

ROYAL CARIBBEAN

Opens new reservations call center in Springfield

Project: A $60 million, 165,000-square-foot building on 24 acres in the Gateway area

First day of full operation: Jan. 9

Hours of operation: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat.-Sun.

Employees: 230 at opening, with plans to grow to 1,000 by 2009

Compensation: Cruise representatives start at $9.25 an hour. After 90 days, they're eligible for a performance bonus of up to 20 percent, bumping the hourly rate to $11.10. Also after 90 days, employees are eligible for medical, dental, vision and disability insurance, retirement plans, employee stock purchase and two weeks of vacation in their first year. They also can accrue up to 56 hours in their first year for sick leave or other personal time off.

CAPTION(S):

Mike Fritchman, supervisor; Holly Oversby, quality assurance specialist; and Julia Morrill, cruise representative value their new employer. The innovative design of the Royal Caribbean site stands out to I-5 drivers.